"Ah, I'm Pingree. We meet again. Splendid. Won't you sit down?" I looked around David's room. Short of the library stacks, I had never seen so many books piled into a single room. Where could I sit down? Every square inch of horizontal surface was covered. Books, papers, notes, manuscripts-all congregated in random and chaotic disorder. This small encounter and the snapshot of the protagonist on the cover of this book introduce the reader to David E. Pingree, the eminent classicist, Orientalist, historian of ancient science, and member of the Department of the History of Mathematics at Brown University. This is a book of his stories, retold by Phil Davis, award-winning author and raconteur par excellence, who reconstructs them from letters and many conversations with his friend Pingree. The stories trace connections between ancient characters, historical and mythical, and recreate a world in which the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake leads to unexpected pleasures and associations. They capture a world best described by Saul Lieberman's quip about Gershom Scholem's great work on the Kabala: "Trash is trash; but the study of trash is scholarship," and David Pingree's imagined response, "Yes, but there's always something of value to be learned." The book is dedicated to preserving and promoting the specialized knowledge and thoughts of David Pingree, a truly remarkable person and to inspire readers to follow academic tradition and at the same time explore unusual connections.

"Ah, I m Pingree. We meet again. Splendid. Won t you sit down?"
I looked around David s room. Short of the library stacks, I had never seen so many books piled into a single room. Where could I sit down? Every square inch of horizontal surface was covered. Books, papers, notes, manuscripts all congregated in random and chaotic disorder.

This small encounter and the snapshot of the protagonist on the cover of this book introduce the reader to David E. Pingree, the eminent classicist, Orientalist, historian of ancient science, and member of the Department of the History of Mathematics at Brown University. This is a book of his stories, retold by Phil Davis, award-winning author and raconteur par excellence, who reconstructs them from letters and many conversations with his friend Pingree.

The stories trace connections between ancient characters, historical and mythical, and recreate a world in which the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake leads to unexpected pleasures and associations. They capture a world best described by Saul Lieberman s quip about Gershom Scholem s great work on the Kabala: "Trash is trash; but the study of trash is scholarship," and David Pingree s imagined response, "Yes, but there s always something of value to be learned."

The book is dedicated to preserving and promoting the specialized knowledge and thoughts of David Pingree, a truly remarkable person and to inspire readers to follow academic tradition and at the same time explore unusual connections.

Mathematics has long suffered in the public eye through portrayals of mathematicians as socially inept geniuses devoted to an arcane discipline. In this book, Philip J. Davis addresses this image through a question-and-answer dialogue that lays to rest many of the misnomers and misunderstandings of mathematical study. He answers these questions and more: What is Mathematics? Why is mathematics difficult, and why do I spontaneously react negatively when I hear the word? Davis demonstrates how mathematics surrounds, imbues, and maintains our everyday lives: the digitization and automation of processes like pumping gas, withdrawing cash, and buying groceries are all fueled by mathematics. He takes the reader through a point-by-point explanation of many frequently asked questions about mathematics, gently introducing this Handmaiden of Science and telling you everything you've ever wanted to know about her.

A number of years ago, Harriet Sheridan, then Dean of Brown University, organized a series oflectures in which individual faculty members described how it came about that they entered their various fields. I was invited to participate in this series and found in the invitation an opportunity to recall events going back to my early teens. The lecture was well received and its reception encouraged me to work up an expanded version. My manuscript lay dormant all these years. In the meanwhile, sufficiently many other mathematical experiences and encounters accumulated to make this little book. My 1981 lecture is the basis of the first piece: "Napoleon's Theorem. " Although there is a connection between the first piece and the second, the four pieces here are essentially independent. The sec ond piece, "Carpenter and the Napoleon Ascription," has as its object a full description of a certain type of scholar-storyteller (of whom I have known and admired several). It is a pastiche, contain ing a salad bar selection blended together by my own imagination. This piece purports, as a secondary goal, to present a solution to a certain unsolved historical problem raised in the first piece. The third piece, "The Man Who Began His Lectures with 'Namely'," is a short reminiscence of Stefan Bergman, one of my teachers of graduate mathematics. Bergman, a remarkable person ality, was born in Poland and came to the United States in 1939."

A number of years ago, Harriet Sheridan, then Dean of Brown University, organized a series oflectures in which individual faculty members described how it came about that they entered their various fields. I was invited to participate in this series and found in the invitation an opportunity to recall events going back to my early teens. The lecture was well received and its reception encouraged me to work up an expanded version. My manuscript lay dormant all these years. In the meanwhile, sufficiently many other mathematical experiences and encounters accumulated to make this little book. My 1981 lecture is the basis of the first piece: "Napoleon's Theorem. " Although there is a connection between the first piece and the second, the four pieces here are essentially independent. The sec ond piece, "Carpenter and the Napoleon Ascription," has as its object a full description of a certain type of scholar-storyteller (of whom I have known and admired several). It is a pastiche, contain ing a salad bar selection blended together by my own imagination. This piece purports, as a secondary goal, to present a solution to a certain unsolved historical problem raised in the first piece. The third piece, "The Man Who Began His Lectures with 'Namely'," is a short reminiscence of Stefan Bergman, one of my teachers of graduate mathematics. Bergman, a remarkable person ality, was born in Poland and came to the United States in 1939."

This is the classic introduction for the educated lay reader to the richly diverse world of mathematics: its history, philosophy, principles, and personalities.

A sequel to the widely successful Thomas Gray, Philosopher Cat, Philip J. Davis' latest continues the adventures of the internationally popular feline and friend. Could it be that Hans Christian Andersen - who wrote so lovingly of inchworms and ugly ducklings - was an unrepentant despiser of cats? That's the rumor that the philosophical feline, Thomas Gray, and cohort, Cambridge don Lucas Fysst, (whose last name doesn't rhyme with "fist") are determined to snuff out. In Copenhagen to attend a philosophers' convention, they go on the hunt for a missing Andersen manuscript that will set the record straight. A whimsically written and illustrated tale - part history, part parody, and all fun. Davis is Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics at Brown University and author of No Way: Essays on the Impossible.

A circulant matrix is one in which a basic row of numbers is repeated again and again, but with a shift in position. Such matrices have connection to problems in physics, signal and image processing, probability, statistics, numerical analysis, algebraic coding theory, and many other areas. At the same time, the theory of circulants is easy, relative to the general theory of matrices. Practically every matrix-theoretic question for circulants may be resolved in closed form. Consequently, circulant matrices constitute a nontrivial but simple set of objects that the reader may use to practice, and ultimately deepen, a knowledge of matrix theory. They can also be viewed as special instances of structured or patterned matrices. This book serves as a general reference on circulants, as well as provides alternate or supplemental material for intermediate courses on matrix theory. There is some general discussion of matrices: block matrices, Kronecker products, decomposition theorems, generalised inverses. These topics were chosen because of their application to circulants and because they are not always found in books on linear algebra. More than 200 problems of varying difficulty are included.

Useful to programmers and stimulating for theoreticians, this text covers the major methods of numerical integration. It offers a balanced presentation: certain sections derive from or allude to deep results of analysis, but most of the final results are expressed in a form accessible to anyone with a background in calculus.
An extensive introduction outlines the uses and advantages of numerical integration and includes formulas and guides to orthogonal polynomials and specific integrals. Subsequent chapters explore approximate integration over finite and infinite intervals, error analysis, approximate integration in two or more dimensions, and automatic integration. Five helpful appendixes conclude the text.

H. A. Schwarz showed us how to extend the notion of reflection in straight lines and circles to reflection in an arbitrary analytic arc. Notable applications were made to the symmetry principle and to problems of analytic continuation. Reflection, in the hands of Schwarz, is an antianalytic mapping. By taking its complex conjugate, we arrive at an analytic function that we have called here the Schwarz Function of the analytic arc. This function is worthy of study in its own right and this essay presents such a study. In dealing with certain familiar topics, the use of the Schwarz Function lends a point of view, a clarity and elegance, and a degree of generality which might otherwise be missing. It opens up a line of inquiry which has yielded numerous interesting things in complex variables; it illuminates some functional equations and a variety of iterations which interest the numerical analyst. The perceptive reader will certainly find here some old wine in relabelled bottles. But one of the principles of mathematical growth is that the relabelling process often suggests a new generation of problems. Means become ends; the medium rapidly becomes the message. This book is not wholly self-contained. Readers will find that they should be familiar with the elementary portions of linear algebra and of the theory of functions of a complex variable.